I'm curious if you stratified this at all by the prices of inks that came in really fancy bottles...Iroshizuku, Akkerman, Edelstein are ones I know of. Surely, one pays for that as well. Great table, thanks for updating us!

For me, since I don't drink the stuff (or haven't yet, at any rate), feel that price is generally secondary to how the ink works for me, since a bottle lasts a really long time. It's moot for now, though, since I haven't yet fallen in love with any of the most expensive inks. When that happens, I may change my mind on that point. I will admit that price has kept me from regularly buying really fine whiskey.

Thanks! Great table +2. I do it all the time. The only problem (as if you didn't already know, har, har...) is that it depends on who looks where. E.g. R&K, DeA, MB, Pelikan, Herbin etc etc are all quite inexpensive here but Noodler's and PRs aren't. In your neck of the woods I'd say it's exactly the other way around. It's also interesting to compare one and the same ink in one and the same country, e.g. Diamines from Diamine, TWD, Cult Pens etc etc...

I'm curious if you stratified this at all by the prices of inks that came in really fancy bottles...Iroshizuku, Akkerman, Edelstein are ones I know of. Surely, one pays for that as well.

This analysis is in no way related to the performance of inks, but rather just a straight analysis of their cost vs volume of ink in a bottle. I expected to see Noodler's as the clear winner, but while they did come out as the leader (tied wtth Monteverde, which I believe is rebottled Pelikan), I don't believe that the cheapest ink is necessarily the best. I love my Iroshizuku inks, but I'll admit that I use them very sparingly.

Interesting cost breakdown (someone did this a year or two ago, and included Caran d'Ache, which at the time was the most expensive per ml).

It would be nice to see this expanded out to brands that are not as readily available, and also to comparison-shop prices between various vendors (prices of inks sometimes vary considerably between sources -- and that's not taking sales promotions or closeouts into account).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

The only problem (as if you didn't already know, har, har...) is that it depends on who looks where. E.g. R&K, DeA, MB, Pelikan, Herbin etc etc are all quite inexpensive here but Noodler's and PRs aren't...

When I've visited Germany I make a point of picking up some R&K, Pelikan Blue-Black, Lamy nibs, etc. All of which are far more inexpensive there than they are here. Also, European paper is far superior to what we've got in the US so I try to get some stationery. Zanders Gohrsmühle is one of my favorite papers as it's fountain pen friendly and has a cool watermark.

I recently found a full quart bottle of Skrip Royal Blue in on eBay for $34. That works out to $.034 per milliter.

And here I thought I got a pretty good deal over the summer on a full bottle (possibly unopened) of Quink Violet for $50. Although I seem to be doing the math wrong somehow: I keep ending up with it being about $.21-.22 cents per ml. So either my math is way off or sexauerw's is. Because a more expensive bottle of the same amount of liquid couldn't possibly be cheaper....

My brain hurts.

I haven't opened the bottle yet, because I want to decant it into a smaller container to actually fill pens from -- largely due to a *really* bad experience with a brand new bottle of Noodler's Kung Te Cheng a couple of summers ago (and that only was half as much ink, roughly). The bottle of KTC I could replace fairly easily (although it took about 6 weeks for Goulet Pens to get it back in stock); the Quink Violet, not so much....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

And here I thought I got a pretty good deal over the summer on a full bottle (possibly unopened) of Quink Violet for $50. Although I seem to be doing the math wrong somehow: I keep ending up with it being about $.21-.22 cents per ml. So either my math is way off or sexauerw's is. Because a more expensive bottle of the same amount of liquid couldn't possibly be cheaper....

My brain hurts.

I haven't opened the bottle yet, because I want to decant it into a smaller container to actually fill pens from -- largely due to a *really* bad experience with a brand new bottle of Noodler's Kung Te Cheng a couple of summers ago (and that only was half as much ink, roughly). The bottle of KTC I could replace fairly easily (although it took about 6 weeks for Goulet Pens to get it back in stock); the Quink Violet, not so much....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

1 qt =32 oz (I am guessing he actually has a 1 liter bottle which would be 33.8 oz or 1000 Ml) It appears he has used that when doing the math. $34/1000=.034. If your bottle is that size then it would come to .05/mL A 500Ml bottle (16.9 oz) would be $0.10/Ml

Brad

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind"- Rudyard Kipling"None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try." - Mark Twain

My cheapest ink is a packet of ink powder that I got for $1, that makes a quart, or approximately 1 litre.

That comes out at $0.001 / ml. However at that strength, it is too weak for a fountain pen. I need to have it 3x stronger, so the cost as a fountain pen ink, rather than a dip pen ink is really $0.003 / ml.

The price on the packet, though, was 1 shilling (12 cents). And that turns out to be 0.33 pence / oz, or a bit over a farthing an oz.

Thanks for posting the link. We introduced that feature in 2008 and we thought it slightly risky at the time but customers value the additional information. We also have a price comparison table of all the ink ranges we currently stock. Our table shows live prices with links to each product range.

My cheapest ink is a packet of ink powder that I got for $1, that makes a quart, or approximately 1 litre.

That comes out at $0.001 / ml. However at that strength, it is too weak for a fountain pen. I need to have it 3x stronger, so the cost as a fountain pen ink, rather than a dip pen ink is really $0.003 / ml.

The price on the packet, though, was 1 shilling (12 cents). And that turns out to be 0.33 pence / oz, or a bit over a farthing an oz.

Where did you find it? I want to play with it. I see an experiment in my future.

Fountain pens are my preferred COLOR DELIVERY SYSTEM (in part because crayons melt in Las Vegas).

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